High Bucket. UGH!

[EMDF9A]

I thougth I'd take a little trip on either 11 or 14 before the T&R season starts & ride the entire trip. I was originally looking at a March 31 departure from LAX on #14 but the price of a roomette was $472!. I dont think so... Its a nice enough rolling hotel, but not quite THAT nice. I looked @ #11 for the same day and it was only $224. I would have preferred to fly to LA & take the train north, as I can do that in a weekend... fly down Friday after work & be back in time for Monday morning. Either way I will have to do an overnight in LA before flying back to SEA, but at double the room cost and $50 more for the railfare, its going to be #11.

David

Seattle

 

[the_traveler]

That'a when AGR awards come in handy!

Buy 10,000 points before 3/31 for $275, receive 13,000 - and almost have enough for the roomette! (You only need 2,000 more points!)

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Whats a quick, easy way to get the final 2,000 points? Besides spending $1,000 on travel or waiting ten months to make another purchase.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

That's why you don't book LS Sleeper tickets 20 days before departure. They could become rediculously expensive!

 

[Big Iron]

I was looking at Amsag for an 11 month out roundtrip on the CL and the low bucket for a roomette is $255.00!!! That is up from $139.00 in 2011.

I checked some other months and $255.00 was the low bucket. Am I missing something? I haven't seen anything on this forum regarding a significant bump is sleeper pricing.

 

[dlagrua]

I found that of late the sleeper prices are all over the place. On some routes you can still buy a bedroom for $260 and on others you'll pay $1225 for the same accommodation. Same with roomettes. I've seen $825 roomettes for sale on the Cardinal and $600 roomettes on the Autotrain. I decline purchasing at such prices BUT apparently there are some that still keep buying.

Big Iron: There has been a significant price increase on sleepers in 2012- high demand and limited availability.

 

[the_traveler]

Whats a quick, easy way to get the final 2,000 points? Besides spending $1,000 on travel or waiting ten months to make another purchase.

I just subscribed to 2 magazines (railroad related, of course

) thru magazines.com (via Points for Shopping) - and earned almost 2,000 points (25 points/$

)! They will probably not post by the end of the month though!

You could always have a friend or family member transfer 2,000 points to you!

 

[Ispolkom]

I checked some other months and $255.00 was the low bucket. Am I missing something? I haven't seen anything on this forum regarding a significant bump is sleeper pricing.

There's not been a price increase as such, but Amtrak is not offering more than one or two roomettes and one bedroom on the Capitol Limited in the lowest bucket. $255 is what I usually see for a roomette this route. I can't blame Amtrak for charging what the market will bear. If they can't sell the space at the higher price, I'm sure that it will come down in price.

 

[Big Iron]

I checked some other months and $255.00 was the low bucket. Am I missing something? I haven't seen anything on this forum regarding a significant bump is sleeper pricing.

There's not been a price increase as such, but Amtrak is not offering more than one or two roomettes and one bedroom on the Capitol Limited in the lowest bucket. $255 is what I usually see for a roomette this route. I can't blame Amtrak for charging what the market will bear. If they can't sell the space at the higher price, I'm sure that it will come down in price.

Thanks to you and Diagrua for updating me. I usually book far in advance but recently, thanks to AGR points, I booked two months out. I didn't have enough points for the return sleeper on #30, even booking only 2 months out it was $139.00. I'll keep poking around Amsnag and see what turns up or be more patient and wait for the points to rack up.

EDIT, booked trip in early December 2011.

 

[Big Iron]

I found that of late the sleeper prices are all over the place. On some routes you can still buy a bedroom for $260 and on others you'll pay $1225 for the same accommodation. Same with roomettes. I've seen $825 roomettes for sale on the Cardinal and $600 roomettes on the Autotrain. I decline purchasing at such prices BUT apparently there are some that still keep buying.

Big Iron: There has been a significant price increase on sleepers in 2012- high demand and limited availability.

I certainly won't gripe with Amtrak trying to maximize revenue. I'll just spend more time checking fares to get the best deal possible.

 

[white rabbitt]

i am takeing the texas eagle round trip from chicago to austin on april 25

i got a roomette from chicago to austin for $194 the low bucket

i went with coach for the return to chicago last night the roomette

upgrade was $194 today the roomette is $316 my trip is april 30th

how can it be so high becouse yesterday it was so cheap

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I found CZ sleeper prices as around $400 CHI-EMY. I used to find prices like $300.

i am takeing the texas eagle round trip from chicago to austin on april 25

i got a roomette from chicago to austin for $194 the low bucket

i went with coach for the return to chicago last night the roomette

upgrade was $194 today the roomette is $316 my trip is april 30th

how can it be so high becouse yesterday it was so cheap

Your post is all over the place and very hard to read. But after close examination, I will say that somebody probably booked the last low bucket and the fares shot up or maybe Amtrak did an overall fare increase (unlikely). Get used to quick changes with Sleeper fares. I once saw an ticket go up three buckets then two weeks later it went down two buckets.

 

[white rabbitt]

I found CZ sleeper prices as around $400 CHI-EMY. I used to find prices like $300.

i am takeing the texas eagle round trip from chicago to austin on april 25

i got a roomette from chicago to austin for $194 the low bucket

i went with coach for the return to chicago last night the roomette

upgrade was $194 today the roomette is $316 my trip is april 30th

how can it be so high becouse yesterday it was so cheap

Your post is all over the place and very hard to read. But after close examination, I will say that somebody probably booked the last low bucket and the fares shot up or maybe Amtrak did an overall fare increase (unlikely). Get used to quick changes with Sleeper fares. I once saw an ticket go up three buckets then two weeks later it went down two buckets.

i just checked and the austin-chicago portion the roomette's are still $317

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I found CZ sleeper prices as around $400 CHI-EMY. I used to find prices like $300.

i am takeing the texas eagle round trip from chicago to austin on april 25

i got a roomette from chicago to austin for $194 the low bucket

i went with coach for the return to chicago last night the roomette

upgrade was $194 today the roomette is $316 my trip is april 30th

how can it be so high becouse yesterday it was so cheap

Your post is all over the place and very hard to read. But after close examination, I will say that somebody probably booked the last low bucket and the fares shot up or maybe Amtrak did an overall fare increase (unlikely). Get used to quick changes with Sleeper fares. I once saw an ticket go up three buckets then two weeks later it went down two buckets.

i just checked and the austin-chicago portion the roomette's are still $317

I mean that you should wait weeks, even mounthes, for lower prices. They go up fast, they go down slow.